GDS (especially MS and HS) - how much does specific teacher shape experiencd?

[Anonymous]

If my kid is in English class with teacher 1 (or science, etc.) and her best friend is with teacher 2 - same class but different teachers - will they have seriously different experiences? Will comparable work get pretty different grades? This is something I’ve heard from a friend but just the one friend, so I’m not sure how seriously to take her.

[Anonymous]

From a psychological perspective your child's best friend could be in the same class with your child and have a wildly different experience because their perspective will be their own. So the variations of that are going to be widespread based on who responds. I believe GDS teachers are free to create their own curriculum and cater things to their class so in theory, the kids can have very different experiences, but that should be in your favor as the curriculum is flexible to how the kids in the class respond.

[Anonymous]

100 percent yes. High school teachers include those who moved from the lower school and those who also teach graduate students concurrently. They approach their work and grading very differently.

[Anonymous]

Yes, of course. Teachers are not robots. This is what you're paying for in private schools - the advantage of having teachers much more involved in the curriculum. Most of the time, that's great.

[Anonymous]

OP here, clarifying: my friend feels her child’s work is graded more harshly in teacher 1’s class than comparable work in teacher 2’s class. This is the MS.

[Anonymous]

Yes, that happens. It is teacher dependent.

[Anonymous]

This is true at literally any school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is true at literally any school

This is the correct answer. Grad school, college, HS, MS, public, private, whatever.

[Anonymous]

The more autonomy teachers have, the more you see this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is true at literally any school

No, GDS is special.

[Anonymous]

Tough to control for this in an humanities based class (which I assume when you "harsher" grading you are referring to essays).Best case scenario in a STEM class all of the sections regardless of teacher get the same test. This will eliminate any of these feelings of things being unfair or differences between teachers.

[Anonymous]

This is a downside of schools with harsh grading and the DC so called "Big3." There is uneven grading between sections and part of doing well is having the luck of not getting the teachers who don't give As.

NCS used to have a few English teachers like this and if you got them, there went your shot of being Cum Laude (top 15%) in the class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is true at literally any school

No, GDS is special.

Say more. Is there more variation at GDS?

Sometimes wonder if DS might be getting better grades if he were in a different section for some classes. Some of his teachers are new and seem to have something to prove.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, clarifying: my friend feels her child’s work is graded more harshly in teacher 1’s class than comparable work in teacher 2’s class. This is the MS.

So what? That happens all the time. How your friend "feels" is not relevant.

[Anonymous]

It’s absolutely relevant if one child is held to different standards than another